Tag: privacy

  • iPhone Analytics

    Michael Tsai: I have always preferred to share usage information with Apple because I believe in providing the engineers with as much information as they would need to keep improving the products, not just for me but for all users. However, as Apple shifts to providing ads, I’m not sure if I would still be…

  • PowerPoint sending your data to Microsoft

    Roger González Gutiérrez (via Michael Tsai): Microsoft is phoning home the content of your PowerPoint slides. […] Make a new slide with a title of your choice. Choose “Designer.” Look at your network traffic as you do. It makes sense: the tool is reading your text and suggesting designs/delivering stock photography. But this means that any data…

  • Brave and DuckDuckGo removing AMP by default

    Michael Tsai: Brave (via Tim Hardwick): Brave is rolling out a new feature called De-AMP, which allows Brave users to bypass Google-hosted AMP pages, and instead visit the content’s publisher directly. AMP harms users’ privacy, security and internet experience, and just as bad, AMP helps Google further monopolize and control the direction of the Web.…

  • Privacy Sandbox on Android

    Google: While we design, build and test these new solutions, we plan to support existing ads platform features for at least two years, and we intend to provide substantial notice ahead of any future changes. So it’s being built and tested. Android users will still be subjected to ads tracking for the next two years.

  • 96% iOS users in the US opt out of tracking

    Flurry: Until now, apps have been able to rely on Apple’s Identifier for Advertiser (IDFA) to track users for targeting and advertising purposes. With the launch of iOS 14.5 this week, mobile apps now have to ask users who have upgraded to iOS 14.5 for permission to gather tracking data. With opt-in rates expected to…

  • The Instagram ads Facebook won't show you

    Signal: We created a multi-variant targeted ad designed to show you the personal data that Facebook collects about you and sells access to. The ad would simply display some of the information collected about the viewer which the advertising platform uses. Facebook was not into that idea. Maybe everyone should try Facebook’s advertising platform at…

  • Facebook and Instagram Ask Users to Enable App Tracking in Order to Keep Services Free

    MacRumors: As a way to convince users to enable tracking across other apps and websites, Facebook is deploying the tactic of telling users that they must enable tracking as part of the App Tracking Transparency framework in iOS 14.5 if they want to help keep Facebook and Instagram “free of charge.” Are they threatening to…

  • Verizon sold Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm

    NY Times: Yahoo and AOL, kings of the early internet, saw their fortunes decline as Silicon Valley raced ahead to create new digital platforms. Google replaced Yahoo. AOL was supplanted by cable giants. Now they will become the property of private equity. Verizon, their current owner, agreed to sell them to Apollo Global Management in…

  • Facebook apologizes to users, businesses for Apple’s monstrous efforts to protect its customers' privacy

    The Register: Facebook has apologized to its users and advertisers for being forced to respect people’s privacy in an upcoming update to Apple’s mobile operating system – and promised it will do its best to invade their privacy on other platforms. The antisocial network that makes almost all of its revenue from building a vast,…

  • How to remove YouTube tracking

    Dries Buytaert: After some research, I discovered that YouTube offers a privacy-enhanced way of embedding videos. Instead of linking to youtube.com, link to youtube-nocookie.com, and no data-collecting HTTP cookie will be sent. This is Google’s way of providing GDPR-compliant YouTube videos. Time to go update your links. This ties in with removing Google Analytics from…